Kochi: Tainted Indian speedster S. Sreesanth has suffered a big blow with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) reiterating that the life ban imposed on him will stay.

Sreesanth received the letter from the BCCI on Sunday after he submitted a review petition seeking lifting of the life ban in view of his being exonerated by a Delhi court of the spot-fixing allegations against him.

Sreesanth had approached the Kerala High Court challenging the life-long ban slapped on him by the disciplinary panel of the BCCI for his alleged involvement in the IPL spot-fixing scandal of 2013.

The Kochi-based pacer had pleaded with the court to be allowed to play in the Scotland Cricket League. He had said the BCCI enquiry panel had made its reports based on the information provided by the Delhi police.

In the spot-fixing case, he had to cool his heels in Delhi's Tihar jail in 2013.

The BCCI's letter, from CEO Rahul Johri, states that the Board is very particular in ensuring that discipline is maintained and there is nothing to change their September, 2013, decision of imposing a life ban on the bowler.

The letter also mentions that the decision to impose the life ban was taken by a committee that had as members BCCI vice-president T.C. Mathew -- who was Kerala Cricket Association president -- and KCA secretary T.N. Ananthanarayanan.

After Sreesanth approached the Kerala High Court in March this year with a petition seeking the lifting of the ban, following a Delhi court exonerating him in the spot-fixing case, the court asked him to file a review petition before the BCCI.

In 2015, the now 34-year-old pacer along with two other players was exonerated by the Delhi court in the case registered by the Delhi Police which invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

On account of the life ban, the pacer cannot play even league cricket nor get access even for practice to any of the cricket grounds where the BCCI or the state cricket associations have a stake.

The BCCI disciplinary committee headed by present union finance minister Arun Jaitley had slapped a life ban on Sreesanth.

Sreesanth is just the second Keralite to represent the country and in his brief career he played in 27 Tests taking 87 wickets, and picked up 75 scalps from 53 One-day Internationals and seven wickets from 10 Twenty20 Internationals.